Prescription drug abuse is a big problem in the county, with the Sheriff's Office estimating that 85 percent of the crimes they respond to are tied to substance abuse. In an effort to curb crime, the department used money seized from drug crimes to purchase an incinerator – the likes of which puts them in the company of the Department of Defense and nearly all U.S. military branches.

They all have one. And now the county has one too.

Deputies fired it up for the first time last week, and pills that may have otherwise been flushed down commodes, buried in landfills, swiped by abusers or shipped off for destruction are now reduced to ashes without punishing the environment. The price of shipping drugs has been replaced by the lower cost of using the incinerator.

On Saturday, the Sheriff's Office will host an Operation Medicine Drop to christen its new state-of-the-art medical waste incinerator. The Sheriff's Office cannot accept chemotherapy drugs, sharps or syringes.

A retired U.S. Postal Service drop box, donated to the department and renewed with a fresh coat of paint, acts as a permanent collection site for unused medications throughout the week. The box sits inside the lobby of the Sheriff's Office at 100 N. Grove Street, open 8-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

To maintain accountability in the department, two officers with two keys are required to open the container. The collection is weighed and noted before it is taken to the incinerator, secured inside a gated enclosure in the password-protected impound lot.

“We're very blessed that the county allowed us to purchase this and let it be a service to the community,” he said.

Henderson County commissioners gave the department clearance to purchase the $27,700 top-of-the-line incinerator with drug forfeiture funds last year.

County Manager Steve Wyatt said Sheriff Charlie McDonald came up with the idea, “and made a really good case about this being the best way to take care of (unused medications).”

The materials — once buried in landfills — have become targets of scavengers in the past. But “when you have a material that can have a nefarious purpose, it's a huge safety issue,” Wyatt said.

The incinerator is now an added tool in the Sheriff's Office arsenal to reduce crime. The department's goal is to reduce break-ins by 12 percent in 2014.

“What we're trying to do here is let these drugs get out of peoples' houses. If they're not in there, then the people aren't going to break in and steal them,” Stout said. “When folks are addicted ... they have no moral compass to (guide them away from) knocking down grandma and grandpa and taking their drugs. It's very sad ... (this) goes hand-in-hand with our big approach in the reduction of crime and community service for the Sheriff's Office.”

As the pills were being collected from the box Wednesday morning, a phone rang in the office; another caller was asking when she could dispose of old medication. Stout said they get those calls a lot.

“We typically take in between 400 and 500 pounds” of medications during a collection, he added. In years past, the department was able to dispose of the unwanted drugs at the county landfill, but environmental protection laws have locked them out of that practice.

Today, deputies are required to package the items up and ship them to a disposal facility out east. They pay for it by the pound.

“It can get very expensive,” Stout said. “When we looked at the cost long-term for trying to be able to get rid of unused and unwanted drugs in the community, it was far more practical for us to purchase an incinerator through drug money” than it was to continuously ship the drugs off for destruction.

Evidence technician Arthur Ward said the program is more than just a pill drop. The incinerator can also be used to get rid of other evidence, things that no longer hold “evidentiary value,” Stout said. Pounds of seized marijuana can be incinerated without intoxicating fumes.

The 8-foot-tall, 2,440-pound dual-chambered incinerator can reduce up to 30kg of material to ashes in an hour. Piles of medication go up in smoke — clean smoke — in as little as eight minutes. Temperatures can reach more than 1,832 degrees in its chambers.

Other agencies may employ small containers, fired by charcoal or wood, to burn evidence and pills, but the Sheriff's Office is one of the first in the region to use the MediBurn 30, Stout said. “This is truly a state-of-the-art incinerator.”

“The sheriff and I have had some discussions about the issues regarding the need to be able to safely eliminate — and I mean eliminate — these materials and there's really only one way to do it,” Wyatt said. “We think that we're getting a great return on investment... I applaud the sheriff for putting this together.”

<p>A 12-pound box full of bottles and bags of unused pills was obliterated into a heap of ashes Wednesday morning inside a fiery vault at the Henderson County Sheriff's Office impound lot.</p><p>Prescription drug abuse is a big problem in the county, with the Sheriff's Office estimating that 85 percent of the crimes they respond to are tied to substance abuse. In an effort to curb crime, the department used money seized from drug crimes to purchase an incinerator – the likes of which puts them in the company of the Department of Defense and nearly all U.S. military branches.</p><p>They all have one. And now the county has one too.</p><p>Deputies fired it up for the first time last week, and pills that may have otherwise been flushed down commodes, buried in landfills, swiped by abusers or shipped off for destruction are now reduced to ashes without punishing the environment. The price of shipping drugs has been replaced by the lower cost of using the incinerator.</p><p>On Saturday, the Sheriff's Office will host an Operation Medicine Drop to christen its new state-of-the-art medical waste incinerator. The Sheriff's Office cannot accept chemotherapy drugs, sharps or syringes.</p><p>A retired U.S. Postal Service drop box, donated to the department and renewed with a fresh coat of paint, acts as a permanent collection site for unused medications throughout the week. The box sits inside the lobby of the Sheriff's Office at 100 N. Grove Street, open 8-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.</p><p>To maintain accountability in the department, two officers with two keys are required to open the container. The collection is weighed and noted before it is taken to the incinerator, secured inside a gated enclosure in the password-protected impound lot.</p><p>The MediBurn 30 portable medical waste incinerator arrived a few weeks ago, said Maj. Frank Stout.</p><p>“We're very blessed that the county allowed us to purchase this and let it be a service to the community,” he said.</p><p>Henderson County commissioners gave the department clearance to purchase the $27,700 top-of-the-line incinerator with drug forfeiture funds last year.</p><p>County Manager Steve Wyatt said Sheriff Charlie McDonald came up with the idea, “and made a really good case about this being the best way to take care of (unused medications).”</p><p>The materials — once buried in landfills — have become targets of scavengers in the past. But “when you have a material that can have a nefarious purpose, it's a huge safety issue,” Wyatt said.</p><p>The incinerator is now an added tool in the Sheriff's Office arsenal to reduce crime. The department's goal is to reduce break-ins by 12 percent in 2014.</p><p>“What we're trying to do here is let these drugs get out of peoples' houses. If they're not in there, then the people aren't going to break in and steal them,” Stout said. “When folks are addicted ... they have no moral compass to (guide them away from) knocking down grandma and grandpa and taking their drugs. It's very sad ... (this) goes hand-in-hand with our big approach in the reduction of crime and community service for the Sheriff's Office.”</p><p>As the pills were being collected from the box Wednesday morning, a phone rang in the office; another caller was asking when she could dispose of old medication. Stout said they get those calls a lot.</p><p>“We typically take in between 400 and 500 pounds” of medications during a collection, he added. In years past, the department was able to dispose of the unwanted drugs at the county landfill, but environmental protection laws have locked them out of that practice.</p><p>Today, deputies are required to package the items up and ship them to a disposal facility out east. They pay for it by the pound.</p><p>“It can get very expensive,” Stout said. “When we looked at the cost long-term for trying to be able to get rid of unused and unwanted drugs in the community, it was far more practical for us to purchase an incinerator through drug money” than it was to continuously ship the drugs off for destruction.</p><p>Evidence technician Arthur Ward said the program is more than just a pill drop. The incinerator can also be used to get rid of other evidence, things that no longer hold “evidentiary value,” Stout said. Pounds of seized marijuana can be incinerated without intoxicating fumes.</p><p>The 8-foot-tall, 2,440-pound dual-chambered incinerator can reduce up to 30kg of material to ashes in an hour. Piles of medication go up in smoke — clean smoke — in as little as eight minutes. Temperatures can reach more than 1,832 degrees in its chambers.</p><p>Other agencies may employ small containers, fired by charcoal or wood, to burn evidence and pills, but the Sheriff's Office is one of the first in the region to use the MediBurn 30, Stout said. “This is truly a state-of-the-art incinerator.”</p><p>“The sheriff and I have had some discussions about the issues regarding the need to be able to safely eliminate — and I mean eliminate — these materials and there's really only one way to do it,” Wyatt said. “We think that we're getting a great return on investment... I applaud the sheriff for putting this together.”</p><p>Reach Weaver at emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.</p>